1.16m
as I said you can get a Solano + 6Pac + 3x25shields for a million if you want to go the combat path. For an additional million you can get a TM which is quite useful in early game to carry your fighter over longer distances.
Or you could invest into an automatic trader which takes a freigther and 500k for trading software mk3 + some funds for wares.
Or you could build your first station, but to get them profitable you need a freighter with a CAG(Commercial Agent) Pilot(CAG is part of the official bonuspakage if you haven't got it do so link)

Once you figure out what you are doing, Hurricane and Hornet missiles are great.

Hurricanes get the most use from me because they are great at taking out those pesky M5s, they are fast and have a small AOE. Most ships can use these but you have to build your own factory if you want to use them.

Hornets I think you may be able to purchase but not too sure. They are a heavier missile good for taking out M6s and slower M3s. You will want to get a factory for these as well if you wish to use them.

But that is for later, once you learn the game and start optimizing your loadouts and trying different tactics.

You're doing fine for a new pilot, Monkspeed. I like that you're finding your own way. There's a lot to learn but there's time to do just that.

Let me give some of the basics of capping. You can generally cap your level of ship and the next one up. The trader version of a ship is much easier to cap than the military version. The TS can be capped even by an M5 like the Disco. The Paranid big TS sells for $1 Mil after you've capped it. An M3 usually sells for $1Mil. An M3+ sells for $3 Mil. It's usually a good idea to leave the pirates alone. Low pirate rep can bite you; they're pretty tough too. The one exception is the Duke's TS ships.

Here's a working method to it. Take down the target shields and some of the hull to 86%. There's a bail check at 87.25%. It's the first time the pilot can bail. You know you've gone past it by going to 86%. Then you have to wait for a time period before there's another bail check. If you just keep firing you don't have a chance to get the bail until perhaps 90% of the hull is gone. I judge the time by watching the shield recovery. If a TS has 3 x 25MJ shields, I'll start firing again when the shields recover to 20%. If a TS has 2 x 25, I'll wait until the shields are 30%. 1 x 25 is 40%. I've tested these numbers extensively and they work.

3 or 4 IREs work on the Disco. With an M3 I might use the PAC or HEPT to take down the shields faster, then change to IREs once I'm close to the bail check number. I use IRE because there's more shots. Every shot gets a bail check. With the weakest weapon you get the most bail checks and the best chance for a bail.

TC combat between other fighters is pretty good. With some practice on the strafe keys (W, A, S, D) you can avoid their shots while you hit them with yours. The double strafe is even more effective; that's using two adjacent strafe keys at the same time.

When you're ready to do more with combat, there's a way to check Morale of the target. Ask when you're ready. High morale targets don't bail very often; that number might be 25 or above. Low morale targets do; their numbers might be 5 to 10.

Edit: there's a way to do the morale that won't modify your game.

Good luck.

Last edited by Bill Huntington on Sat, 3. Jun 17, 03:34, edited 1 time in total.

You are aware that you can exit your ship & use your spacesuit's 'repair laser' to fix up damaged hulls, right? Even if you're only selling the hulls it's a free repair (can take some time for some classes of ship!) & you need the money in the early game!

The Bonus Pack is officially endorsed by the game makers (Egosoft) & freely downloadable (altho sadly not updated, for legal (eg copyright) reasons). However there are free updates available for individual elements from the Scripts & Modding forum or the wiki here

It gives you the Missile Defence Mosquito option (along with CAG & CLS, the trading options others have mentioned), which will greatly enhance your new Mamba's protection as it doesn't have a rear turret. If you haven't yet installed it, do so now!

Saw a big shootout between pirates and police so I decided to investigate, I moved in closer and picked up the stray missiles. One pirate left so I thought I would "help" the police so began my attack, he annihilated me with one shot. Curiosity killed the cat. RELOAD

Got my auto trader working well in Seizewell, trading ore and energy. He is currently at level 7.

I explored the galaxy and picked up a few more stray ships and sold them, so now I'm sitting on ~2.5 mil

Be Aware the PBG (Plasma burst Generator) it kills M3 within seconds, a disco wont survive even one shot and these are AOE-Weapons(the Flamer)
you could think of a station, too.
or get yourself a good combatship.
Oh and make a trip to home of legend this system has 2 shipyard one offering close to all argon stations and ships and one offering the otas company ships which are overpowered argon ship versions e.g. the solano.

And morale can be checked without incurring the 'dreaded' modified tag:

Save game,
Enable Script Editor,
Check morale levels,
Reload game.

I'm well aware of this, but it's a PITA route to go thru if caught up in the game (+ extra load times for those playing on older systems &/or non-SSD laptops) I'm thinking specifically of those last 2 capture ship missions in the TC campaign..

ubuntufreakdragon wrote:Be Aware the PBG (Plasma burst Generator) it kills M3 within seconds, a disco wont survive even one shot and these are AOE-Weapons(the Flamer)
you could think of a station, too.
or get yourself a good combatship.
Oh and make a trip to home of legend this system has 2 shipyard one offering close to all argon stations and ships and one offering the otas company ships which are overpowered argon ship versions e.g. the solano.

Funny coincidence, I was already in Home Of Legend trying to decide to buy a Solano or another trader or maybe both somehow, but I decided to do some exploring and travelled to Duke's Citadel where I bagged myself a free Advanced Perseus, nearly fully kitted out! Needs an extra 25mj shield for 100mj total! 209m/s top speed, slower than the Discoverer but a good speed for a fighter.

I'm gonna keep it and have transferred everything from my Discoverer over but can't bring myself to sell the discoverer, that ship has taken me everywhere! Good times together..

Gonna head over to Home Of Light and buy a Mercury Hauler and set up another auto-trader. My current guy is level 9 and I've ordered him to go 2 sectors out from profit share.

Monkspeed wrote:
... can't bring myself to sell the discoverer, that ship has taken me everywhere! Good times together..

I always keep at least one M5 (fully fitted) handy for my own personal use throughout the game, no matter how far into it and how many stations, plexes, capital ships, etc. I may have - you never know when you might need the speed for some specific task. I very seldom end up having such need, but not quite *never*; furthermore, the paltry unsalted peanuts you get for selling one of those is not even enough to really make any difference to finances in any case. I wouldn't be surprised if your Disco sticks around for a very long time indeed

EDIT: Corrected MULTIPLE typos

Last edited by RAVEN.myst on Wed, 7. Jun 17, 20:05, edited 1 time in total.

Monkspeed wrote:
Funny coincidence, I was already in Home Of Legend trying to decide to buy a Solano or another trader or maybe both somehow, but I decided to do some exploring and travelled to Duke's Citadel where I bagged myself a free Advanced Perseus, nearly fully kitted out! Needs an extra 25mj shield for 100mj total! 209m/s top speed, slower than the Discoverer but a good speed for a fighter.

Nice find I always buy one in AP(because it's buyable there, and finding free ships is way more dificult) sometimes after the Solano in TC it's unique so keep it.
You should still think about buying a TM a fighter pairs very well with a TM as you can use the docking computer to dock at the TM with low shields to refill them instantly (docked ships that no longer are the player ship get full shield on docking) so a TM with strong shields can be your fortress to hide in with you M3 and it can distract enemies with it's turrets while it shield allow it to ignore their fire.
And of cause a TM can jump much farer than a M3, and stock much more ammunition and missiles.
I would recommend the otas Zephyrus you can get in Home of Legend (once again) it might not be the best trader but it is a combat pig and totally fits this role.
For Trade you may want to think about a station at a save spot like Antigone Memorial combined with an CAG Trader.